Can I Recieve payments in United States for my Pakistani Business?

Can I Recieve payments in United States for my Pakistani Business? You must be looking at this post because you have started a business in Pakistan that sells services or products in United States and there is no system for you to receive payments there. First thing you will think about is that if you have any relative or friends there. What you will do is to call them and if they say NO you will be all disappointed with them, you will either curse them for not helping you or you will think they are jealous of you and don’t want your to see prosper.

It is possible for them to receive payments in their bank account however what happen afterwards is not easy at all. It seems like a very simple effortless thing to receive payment on behalf of someone else but infect what you want your relative/friends to do is considered as tax evasion. Now you must be thinking how? Its a genuine Halal income and you have earned it? Also as Pakistani govt charge no tax on income from abroad or from earning through IT (Computer science) you are OK. Yes, you are alright but the person who is receiving payments in United States is not.

Lets discuss about what will happen to your relative or friend who is receiving your payments. Anyone living in United States needs SSN number to open a bank account. SSN number is required from your employer too and it works as your tax id just like NTN in Pakistan. All income a person is earning/receiving in his bank account is a documented proof/record of total money he has received in his bank account during a year. He is answerable to it on how he has earned this money. He can’t just say that this is a gift because the client who has paid the money will never say that its a gift. Client will report it in his legal tax papers as payment for products/services and tax department will know who has received this payment with a proof of bank transaction. At the end of the tax year a person must declare all the income he has earned and pay tax on it otherwise in case of audit it can be considered as tax fraud and he will be heavily fined or he can even go to jail as well.

Your friend/relative can’t say that he is receiving the payment on someone else behalf because it is illegal. You must have a registered business in United States to receive payments if you are selling product/services. What your relative/friend will do is that he will say that he has earned this income for his/her own services and will declare this income and will pay income tax on it. Just to let you know, if your friend/relative is already earning which he must be, then your additional income can push him to higher tax bracket for which he has to pay extra in tax.

So next time if anyone refuse to take payment on your behalf, rest assure they are saving themselves from any problem and if you still want to receive payment so badly, you should consider making that person your partner and share some amount of your profit with him so you both can work together and he can pay tax through legit ways.